Actors and producers of ‘The Simpsons’ mark 30 years of series at Empire State Building and reflect on prediction of Donald Trump as president and impact of hit series. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

The line was half a block long, not an unusual occurrence at Gagosian Beverly Hills, but certainly one that hasn’t happened since its Oscar week opening featuring Damien Hirst in February. Wednesday night’s opening of “America Too,” the third collaboration between Takashi Murakami and Virgil Abloh, drew a small army of fans, most of them young and several of them famous.
Travis Scott, Kourtney Kardashian, Usher, Kid Cudi, Orlando Bloom and Luka Sabbat were spotted in the crowd, which was sizable inside, though nothing compared with the orderly throng outside. They were let in a handful at a time, making it possible for as many fans to take in the event as possible.
Many of the artworks themselves, in a variety of media, were also oversize, including the giant “Material Too,” a take on the American flag, that hung in the center of the North Gallery. It was probably also the biggest number of iPhones seen at an art opening, as young fans excitedly Instagrammed themselves in front of the colorful works, including Murakami’s iconic rainbow flower, onto which the signature arrows of Abloh’s Off-White label were overlaid, or “Arrows and Flower Neon Sign” and a rotating piece that blinked like a

Kanye West may have heard the outcry over his MAGA hat, because we found out he changed it up after the media left the Oval and gave Trump a cap, sans the word, “again.” Check out the embroidery on the hat the Prez is wearing … “Make America…

Our intrepid adolescent heroes wake up to find their beloved television stolen, and embark on an epic journey across America to recover it, and, who knows, maybe even score. On the way they encounter a murderous smuggler of a deadly virus and his treacherous wife, an FBI agent with a predilection for cavity searches, a couple of rather familiar looking ex-Motley Crue roadies, Mr. Van Dreesen singing "Lesbian Seagull", a little old lady and of course Mr. Anderson and his trailer. Can the Great Cornholio save the day? Uh-huh. Huh-huh.

Frank (Joel Murray) has had enough of the downward spiral of American culture. Divorced, recently fired, and possibly terminally ill, Frank feels he has nothing left to live for. However, instead of taking his own life, he embarks on a killing spree with cohort Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), who shares his sense of rage and disenfranchisement, and together they launch a nation-wide assault on the country’s dumbest, most irritating celebrities.

If you didn’t make it out to Philly this weekend for the Made In America Festival, you don’t have to miss out. Day 2 of the Jay-Z curated affair will feature performances from Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Jay Rock, Sheck Wes, Diplo and more, and is streaming online.

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.

Sacha Baron Cohen has been punking people for the last 20 years in various guises, which at first blush made his Showtime series, “Who is America?,” sound like just more of the same. But the provocateur has reeled in some big fish — who have dutifully denounced him — as marks, adding sizzle to what otherwise amounts to serving old wine in a new bottle.

The “Sisterhood” is officially an all-mom squad! America Ferrera announced the arrival of her first child with husband Ryan Piers Williams, and her “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” pal Amber Tamblyn has already met the baby boy. Find out what America and Ryan named their newborn son.

MF Doom hasn’t appeared as himself in a video in ages and unfortunately that doesn’t seem like it’s going to change anytime soon.

Going with the old school Saturday morning cartoon route for the visuals to “Meddle With Metal,” MF Doom and Czarface’s characters do battle with an army of soldiers at a sacred temple in the middle of nowhere.
Fredro Starr meanwhile gets out of New York and travels south of the boarder to meet his plug and get that work in the clip to “South America.”

Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Kali Uchis, Locksmith, and more.

Even better than a favorite local watering hole is a great place to get a trim on the regular.Â Some of these barbershop spots will serve you a drink, too. Here, we picked the coolest barbershops in the United States. Time to get a new haircut.

The denim jacket is an American classic, and its effortless versatility makes it an obvious essential; an anchor piece thatâs key to building the complete menâs wardrobe. Initially created in the late 1800s California as workersâ wear, the jean jacket rose as an icon of cowboy culture in the American West, then showed up in the 20th century on the backs of Beat poets, rebel rockers and movie stars. In 1967, Levis launched its iconic trucker jacket, and over the last 50 years it has become an paradigm of American style.

After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy—the Winter Soldier.

Team America, an international police force dedicated to maintaining global stability learns that a power hungry dictator is brokering weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. The heroes embark upon a harrowing mission to save the world.

After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals. Captain America leads the fight for freedom as the ultimate weapon against evil. When a terrifying force threatens everyone across the globe, the world's greatest soldier wages war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull.

The denim jacket is an American classic, and its effortless versatility makes it an obvious essential; an anchor piece that's key to building the complete men's wardrobe. Initially created in the late 1800s California as workers’ wear, the jean jacket rose as an icon of cowboy

Heck, you’re as patriotic as the next guy, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to sport a star-spangled outfit with USA emblazoned across the chest this weekend, or worse, dress like this. There are much subtler and more stylish ways to show your

Eddie Murphy is The Box Office King Of Comedy. And in Coming To America, Murphy is also the Prince of Comedy…a very wealthy and pampered African prince who comes to America in search of a bride. Accompanied by his closest companion (Arsenio Hall), Murphy quickly finds a job, new friends, new digs, new enemies and lots of trouble. Keep an eye out for both Murphy and Hall in some unforgettable cameo roles!

CHARLESTON, SC—Declaring that opening the nation’s doors to displaced Syrians posed a major security threat, GOP leaders warned Tuesday that any refugees who resettled in the U.S. would most likely be driven to terrorism by the way America treats them. “We absolutely cannot provide a safe haven to these Syrians due to the very real threat that the abusive and hateful conduct of Americans will push the refugees toward radicalization and recruitment by extremist militant groups,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), echoing the sentiments of numerous other presidential candidates and state governors who have argued that Syrian asylum seekers would in all probability embrace a radical jihadist worldview after constantly enduring anti-Muslim hate speech, racial epithets, and threats of violence and persecution by both the American people and government officials. “The moment we let these Syrians in, I promise that our most ruthless and cruel tendencies will …

From writer-director Noah Baumbach comes this witty comedy starring Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke. Tracy (Kirke) is a lonely college freshman who longs for confidence, a guy and membership in a snobby writers’ group. But when she meets her free-spirited future stepsister Brooke (Gerwig), the two have a wild New York adventure that gives Tracy a new outlook on dreams, friendship and cat ownership.

“It might be interesting in the 24-hour news cycle,” she told me in a recent interview on SiriusXM Progress. “But ultimately… the American people don’t embrace that kind of opinion.”

Jarrett, who spoke with me about a groundbreaking federal report that calls for ending “conversion therapy” programs for minors who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, responded to Rand Paul’s assertion in Iowa several days earlier that LGBT people don’t need to be protected by law against discrimination in employment. Paul, in backing up his claim, said, “If you are gay, there are plenty of places that will hire you,” explaining that “the things you do in your house, just leave those in your house and they wouldn’t have to be a part of the workplace.”

“Well, this is what I would say to you on that subject,” Jarrett said. “President Obama was elected not once, but twice based on his vision of America, which is one that unifies us, one that is inclusive, that says we should embrace all of our citizens, that we are a nation of immigrants, and that diversity is a strength. And that’s what the majority of the American people voted for, not once, but twice.”

Jarrett also discussed a report that was released this week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which looked at statements from across the spectrum of child adolescent and development experts regarding both gender identity and sexual orientation. The White House had previously called for banning “conversion therapy” for minors, something three states (California, Oregon and New Jersey) have already done.

“The report concluded firmly that conversion therapy — and the goal of conversion therapy is to change someone’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression — and it concludes that it’s not appropriate for mental health providers to engage in, and so this is a really important report,” Jarrett said. “What we should be doing is celebrating our young people, allowing them to be who they are, loving them for who they are, and not trying to change their identity.”

Jarrett talked about the immense progress the Obama administration has made on LGBT equality, sharing a story about the successful push to repeal ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which illustrates the great strides.

“I went to the Defense Department on the first anniversary of [the repeal],” she recounted. “And I sat there in the Pentagon with people in uniform who had to [previously] sneak into my office at the White House to talk about how important it would be to repeal it and who were saying, ‘You know, here we are in the military. We’re making this pledge and this oath and we’re having to lie about who we are.’ And so, for me to see them, sitting there in their uniforms, embraced by the Secretary of Defense — it just shows you how much progress we have made.”

In a lighter moment, Jarrett also weighed in on the plot line of ”The Good Wife,” the CBS drama on which she made an appearance as herself last season, urging Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) to run for state’s attorney in Illinois. She said she decided do the show because she believes more women need to enter politics and it was an opportunity to put that message forth.

Asked if she believes Florrick’s husband, Gov. Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), should be chosen by Hillary Clinton as a vice presidential running mate should she win the Democratic nomination — something for which the character is positioning himself, as the 2016 presidential race is part of the storyline this season – Jarrett answered with a definitive no.

“I think she should think about Alicia,” she advised. “I would go back to the candidate that I brought to the party, and I’d say hands down I’d pick Alicia over Peter, any day. But if not, then maybe next year Alicia will actually run for president.”

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Camila Ortega, the daughter of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, launched Nicaragua Disena in 2011 to help promote the country’s poor yet talented emerging designers. But what started as a pet project has become a growing event drawing 12,000 people, providing regional designers with a promotion platform and attracting international design schools.
The event’s popularity (the government was said to invest $ 100,000 in the 2015 edition that closed last weekend) comes as other fashion weeks are mushrooming in Central America, with Panama and Costa Rica hosting large events under the Mercedes-Benz banner and El Salvador and Guatemala developing their own iterations.
“We want to bring this to a higher level and become the leading design platform in Central America,” said Ortega, 27. As Nicaragua Design director, Ortega has a modeling hobby and walked several runways in a 30-piece lineup, including local designers Shantall Lacayo and Erick Bendana, as well as Argentina’s Paula Tierra and Venezuela’s Carmela Osorio.
While the event will remain a fashion design platform, it will also seek to promote talent in other areas, including interior design, film, craftsmanship and arts, Ortega said. This year there were 88 designers and 75 stands, compared with 75 and 50, respectively, in 2014.
She said

Any kid who made it through high school in the States probably knows something about the history of alcohol in America. Like the fact that General Ulysses S. Grant was a bit of a lush, or that the original settlers drank a lot of beer, or that Prohibition was a miserable failure that gave rise to bathtub gin and organized crime and the current scourge of speakeasy-inspired cocktail bars.

What you might not know is just how indelibly drinking—and opposition to drinking—has touched some of the most important moments in our country’s timeline. And for that we have Susan Cheever’s Drinking in America: Our Secret History, a look at how alcohol and alcoholism has played into 14 major chapters of American life. “The interesting truth, untaught in most schools and unacknowledged in most written history,” writes Cheever in her prologue, “is that a glass of beer, a bottle of rum, a keg of hard cider, a flask of whiskey, or even a dry martini was often the silent, powerful third party to many decisions that shaped the American story from the 17th century to the present.”

It’s Cheever’s goal to reinsert those tipples back into the history from which they’ve been excised. A perfect image for that mission: a Currier & Ives print from 1848 of George Washington standing in front of his troops with a glass of madeira in hand and a bottle of refills on the table. That engraving was later amended in the early years of the temperance movement, reimagined sans glass and with the bottle morphed into a tricorne hat.

From the moment the Mayflower Pilgrims, wanting for beer, decided to land on Cape Cod rather than their chartered destination in northern Virginia, our national obsession with alcohol was born, argues Cheever. “The decision to land illegally on Cape Cod had a huge effect on the later fate of the Pilgrims and the way in which the American character was formed. An illegal landing in a hostile place, partially caused by a shortage of beer, was not an auspicious beginning.”

Since then, our country’s tolerance for drinking and drunkenness has swung back and forth between periods of massive, near-ubiquitous indulgence—the 1830s and the mid-20th century were particularly sodden ages—and periods of crackdown. In the early 18th century, the American colonies became world famous for their drinking, both in terms of quantity—the average colonist, Cheever cites, spent a quarter of his income on booze—and in terms of prevalence: Everyone drank, from toddlers up. By 1820, drinking peaked, with the average American consuming more than triple what we do today.

But soon, that excess created a backlash: By 1834 there were roughly 5,000 nationwide temperance societies (most famously the Washingtonians), claiming 11 million members. With the rise of industrialization, the realization that drunk workers were not ideal, and the simultaneous rise of the women’s suffrage movement, national attitudes toward drinking began to shift. A century later the country had gone whole hog in the opposite direction, passing the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act and launching Prohibition in 1920. It was an attempt to legislate against drinking that had the opposite effect, giving birth to another hedonistic era in the decades that followed. Our association of writing with alcoholism, a topic that has sparked several books, is a direct result of Prohibition, Cheever argues: an extrapolation based on a handful of examples of prominent hard-drinking, mid-century writers whose behavior was a reaction to their experience of that dry decade. But though Prohibition is largely regarded as a miserable failure, Cheever detects that the country may be swinging back in that direction again: Our increasingly health-and-longevity-focused society, she concludes, may soon lead to another misguided attempt to legislate against alcohol addiction.

Cheever uses these sociological and historical trends to create a loose architecture for her book, but she’s best when writing about the way alcohol—its abuse and its rejection—affected personal lives, and when she digs up fascinating historical nuggets. Like the fact that George Washington lost his first election to the Virginia assembly in 1755, and then won two years later after he delivered 144 gallons of booze to the polls. Or the fact that early physician and Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Rush believed in both the disease theory of alcoholism and in the lurking danger of spontaneous combustion.

Alcoholism haunts American history, and has shaped it, for better or worse. The Adams line may have boasted two presidents, but the family was also plagued by what must have been the alcoholism gene: Two of John and Abigail’s sons and two of their grandsons died tragically in early alcohol-related deaths. Ulysses S. Grant is criticized for his drinking, but perhaps, Cheever speculates, it was his drunken bravado that actually led to his success in the Civil War. (Lincoln, a famous nondrinker, seemed to think so.) Meriwether Lewis, the man responsible for opening up the American West, descended into alcoholism upon his return from his famous expedition to find a water route to the Pacific. But the West, Cheever argues, was won at least in part by teetotalers, like Wyatt Earp, who had a terribly adverse reaction to alcohol and may have used his sobriety to his advantage in running gambling games, investing in silver mines, and shaping his own legacy in Hollywood.

More recently, Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist reign of terror may have succeeded for the time it did only because the Internet wasn’t available to disseminate images or videos of his belligerent antics—including physically assaulting a Washington Post columnist in public—which were, at least in part, spurred on by the alcoholism that eventually killed him. (“Kiss my ass” was McCarthy’s response to a friend who pleaded with him to cut out the drinking mere months before he kicked the bucket.) The gunman who killed JFK may have had an unwitting assist from Kennedy’s secret-service agents, many of whom were hungover and slow to react after a late night of knocking back booze. And when, in 1969, a TWA flight was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and diverted to Syria, a very drunk Nixon, partying with friends in Florida, repeatedly instructed Henry Kissinger by phone to bomb the Syrian airport. In the morning, writes Cheever, the president had no memory of the incident. And many of us have no memory that Nixon, who started drinking only in adulthood and whose tolerance was unusually low, was likely an alcoholic.

It’s clear when I get on the phone with Cheever that she feels empathy for the people about whom she writes, even the ones—Nixon, McCarthy—whose behavior and politics have been judged harshly by the history books. After all, she’s been there herself. Drinking in America is something of a passion project for Cheever, who is a recovering alcoholic (she’s been sober more than 20 years), a memoirist about her addiction (Note Found in a Bottle), and the daughter of John Cheever, one of the 20th century’s more famous alcoholics. Cheever references her family history at various points in the book, something she initially intended to avoid but added at the insistence of her editor. Now she’s glad she did. “The history books that we revere, you never know who the writer is, where he—or Doris [Kearns Goodwin],” she jokes, “is coming from. They don’t reveal their own biases. History is deeply biased. If you don’t reveal your biases, it’s hard for me to connect in the same way. I want to know where the writer is standing.”

Read on for more from Cheever about the boozy tidbits that most surprised her, why alcohol gets written out of the history books, and whether the beer-swigging Pilgrims were severely dehydrated.

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Photo: Courtesy of Twelve Books

What’s the origin story of this project?
It’s a work in progress, the origin story. I’ve always been obsessed with American history, New England history. I wrote a book about Concord, Massachusetts. I wrote a biography of Louisa May Alcott. I wrote a biography of E. E. Cummings. And of course for decades I’ve been fascinated by addiction and recovery and how they work, starting with my own experience as a child. So those two things were going on separate tracks. And they just collided and made this explosion. As soon as I had this idea, I knew it had to be a book. There’s usually a long agonizing run-up to me deciding what to write about. Not this time. It was really like, Oh! Then I read Daniel Okrent’s wonderful book Last Call! The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. In his prologue there’s a little bit about drinking in American history. I emailed him, and he very sweetly sent me to Eric Burns, who had written a book called Spirits of America: A Social History of Alcohol, about American history and alcoholism, mostly focusing on the 19th century. I was off to the races.

Were you surprised to discover how little this history had been written about?
I was so surprised. The whole time I was writing, I was going, “What? Really?” Mark Twain said no discovery for the writer, no discovery for the reader. It was really a voyage of discovery. And I thought I knew a lot about these two subjects, but it turned out that the presence of alcohol, either from the point of view of temperance or from the point of view of drunkenness, has had a huge effect on our history. And I was constantly surprised. I thought I knew a lot about Abraham Lincoln. I know the difference between the first Inaugural Address and the second. I’ve read a million biographies. I had no idea that his mother had made him promise not to drink on her deathbed. I had no idea that he had lectured to the Washingtonians, that he was a temperance man. And I really had no idea that he was one of these rare individuals that didn’t drink and didn’t judge. When they came to him and complained that Ulysses S. Grant was drinking too much, Lincoln said, “Bring me some barrels of what he’s drinking so I can give it to my other generals.” He was such a pragmatist. I already knew I admired Lincoln, but that’s a rare person, who can not drink because of whatever’s happened in their family, what they’ve seen drinking can do, but also not judge people who do drink. What a guy!

What’s your theory on why alcoholism has been ignored by history? Is it because it was taken for granted and so never noted? Or is it a form of patriotism to ignore drinking, to avoid revealing the private behavior of our national heroes?
One of the rants that I have is how much of current events is controlled by drinking and it never gets reported. Donald Trump is a very good example. Donald Trump’s brother died of alcoholism. Donald Trump has talked about this quite a lot. Donald Trump as a result never drinks, hates drinking, won’t let his children drink. This is a big deal and it doesn’t get reported. Just the way that whatever was the real story with George [W.] Bush’s drinking didn’t get reported. I trained my kids to read the Times and go: Where is the drink in this story?

But the second part of the answer is that we like our history in a certain way. There’s a kind of gravitas that we really like. Because it isn’t just the drinking that gets left out: the sex gets left out, the food gets left out, the clothes get left out. All the things I’m interested in, they get left out. When I wrote AmericanBloomsbury, I was writing about Emerson and Thoreau, and Longfellow and the Alcotts, I included the women, and when you include the women you get the clothes and the food. I don’t know if you want to call it the underbelly of daily living. I don’t really care so much about the constitutional amendments, although I had to learn about them. I cared about what people were eating. Or drinking. Or who they were. I like to know about the texture of life. And I think when it comes to American history, a lot of that doesn’t get reported.

Like, for instance, Ken Burns’s The Roosevelts: no sex and no drinking. I mean, this is a family that’s been dogged by mental illness and alcoholism from the beginning. Not there! Eleanor’s love affair with Lorena Hickok. Not there! And people loved that. I don’t know whether it’s because we feel it’s disrespectful to admit that our leaders were human or what. But we do like history written in this very high-minded way.

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Photo: Michael Falco

Here’s an example: Until I read your book, I didn’t know that Richard Nixon was a drunk. I’m 31. Is that because I didn’t live through that history? Or is it not widely known?
I didn’t, either! I was surprised. I lived right through it. I thought he was creepy. I knew he was a crook. But I didn’t know he was a drunk. The first hint I had of it was in Frost/Nixon. There’s that scene where he drunk-dials. And I thought, Ohhh. But I didn’t really think twice about it until I was writing this book and people would say to me, Nixon, Nixon, Nixon. Then I read a bunch of biographies and there it was.

Do you think the reason we didn’t know that was because his alcoholism wasn’t typical? He seemed high-functioning?
It wasn’t high-functioning when it wasn’t. But yes. Someone was asking what is the answer to our addiction and alcohol problem. The answer is education. We’re not very well educated about the different forms alcoholism can take. We still have a tendency to think of it as somebody who drinks too much too often. Nixon drank too much too often, but for him too much was not very much. And he didn’t drink at all until he was an adult. Alcoholism is actually mysterious. It’s clearly genetic. On the other hand, it’s not as if it’s sitting right there in front of us and we’re not understanding it. It’s hard to understand.

But with Nixon: Yes, his alcoholism looked very different. Well, actually, it looked a lot like Ulysses S. Grant’s alcoholism. But it looked different from William Faulkner’s alcoholism. And I think that made it harder to believe or harder to pick up. But I do think that we actually have a public-health crisis when it comes to education about addiction in this country. And there’s still not the understanding of it that we need to have in order to effectively deal with it. But I also think that the people who understand alcoholism the best are the Alcoholics Anonymous people. And they’re like: You’re an alcoholic if you say you are. Meaning, it’s pretty mysterious who’s an alcoholic and who’s not. They say it’s a self-diagnosed disease. That’s a fairly aggravating definition.

You said that you’re interested in studying women’s lives to get at the texture of history. But this is mostly a book about men. Did you choose to focus on men because you wanted to get at the most seminal events in American history, and that’s who was involved? Or was it just too difficult to find examples of women and alcoholism throughout American history? Maybe that’s your next book?
I think both of those things are true. In other words: They don’t write a lot about drinking men; they certainly don’t write about drinking women. But in the temperance part of the book, there are a lot of women, the way that the temperance movement and women’s suffrage came to the surface together. I was trying to think of essays to write, and it occurred to me I could have done more with Abigail Adams. This was a woman who knew she had brought alcoholism into the family. Can you imagine?

Did she feel guilt?
I don’t know if she felt guilt or fear. She wrote about it very obliquely. But she and her sisters knew their brother was an alcoholic who died of it. And she saw two of her sons die of it and two of her grandsons. There wasn’t anybody dying of it in the Adams line before she married John Adams. She didn’t say, “I brought this into my own family and caused tremendous heartbreak because I’m a carrier.” But I wonder what that must have been like. I always liked her, but it really made me have so much respect for her. To have one child die of alcoholism is an unimaginable tragedy. To have two? And two grandchildren?

And John Quincy Adams—ever since that, he acted like he drank sulfuric acid. Well, no wonder? Two brothers, two sons. And they didn’t know what it was. They called it the scourge. They knew it was bad. But they didn’t really understand even as well as we do now.

I wished there were more women. I wasn’t so aware until I finished. One of my favorite books that I’ve written was American Bloomsbury, and the whole formula for that book was that I took Concord, Massachusetts, in the 19th century and added the women. The revelation for me was when I found that Louisa May Alcott had lived across the street from Emerson, and had based Laurie [in Little Women] on Henry David Thoreau. I didn’t even realize they were in the same town. I had studied Emerson, I had studied Thoreau. Nobody had ever told me Louisa May Alcott was the little babysitter girl. And Margaret Fuller. The women in that equation were tremendously powerful and interesting. But with this book it was hard to find women.

There were women who came into the chapter about alcoholic writers, which is an interesting chapter for a lot of reasons. It felt to me sort of like a little self-contained section, where you focused on culture instead of politics and sociology. Why?
You make a good point. That didn’t occur to me. And you’re absolutely right. I just was plowing along, and Olivia Laing’s book The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking came out. I read it and thought, Wait a minute, this isn’t right. Because I was deep in the 19th century at this point. I thought, Wait a minute, [the equation of writers with alcoholism] didn’t start until the 1930s. Like everybody who writes that book—and there are many—they all use the same five writers, because that’s all there are. It’s not happening now. Our writers now are not drunks. I just went, “Wow! This whole myth about writing and drinking is actually restricted to two generations.” And I got so excited about that. But you’re right, I didn’t notice that it completely changed the tone of the book—that it wasn’t about politics, that it was about culture. Sorry!

No, I think it’s fascinating.
I mean, I was so interested. Because everybody thinks it’s all writers who drink. But in fact no writers drink now. You can’t name me one! And it was the same in the 1800s. Maybe Poe. But Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, Dickinson? None, zero, not even a ghost of a problem. Whitman was a temperance guy. The Alcotts, they just didn’t drink. It wasn’t on their menu, so to speak. I got very excited. Because for obvious reasons I don’t like the idea that writers have to drink. As a writer who doesn’t drink, I just got very excited about it and tore through the chapter without noticing that it doesn’t really belong in the book. Maybe no one else will notice?

Well, I wouldn’t say it doesn’t belong in the book. I would just say, to me, it felt meaningful that you wanted to include it. It’s not the only place that you reference your family history, your father’s history. You weave that throughout. Did you learn anything about your family that you didn’t already know writing about them here?
I pretty much had it. I’ve been criticized a lot for writing about myself and my family when, according to critics, it wasn’t necessary. So my original intention was not to put any of us in this book at all. But my editor, I think very wisely, said we need a Cheever thread. And it’s true that when I read a history book, I want to know who the writer is. So I did put in a Cheever thread. History is not monolithic; it’s as personal as memoir. It really is. I’m reading [David] McCullough’s Wright brothers book, and it’s fascinating, but it’s all about the engineering. That’s not the book I would have written. It’s great that he wrote the book he wrote. But I have to guess about his fascination with engineering and his lack of interest in food, sex, and drinking. I don’t want to guess. I like to have a sense of who the writer is. I want to say to the reader: “This is who I am. This is a recovering alcoholic writing about alcoholism. You might need to know that.”

Before I let you go, can I ask you a question that’s been bugging me? You write about how the Mayflower Pilgrims drank beer instead of water, because drinking water was far more dangerous. But were they just horribly dehydrated at all times? How do you survive on no water?
Well, it’s very hard. I don’t think it’s good for you. But If you can’t drink the water . . . You’re just thirsty all the time. And it was 6 percent beer. I thought maybe it was 2 percent, maybe it was near beer, right? Nuh-uh. It was real beer. But they didn’t survive; half of them died that first winter. Half! The starving time. So it’s not a good recipe for good health.

I love this country. I love the state of New York, where I was born and raised, and where my husband and I are raising our almost-2-year-old daughter. When I see the images of Syrian refugees risking their lives to escape the terror in their native country or read about the Nigerian girls who were kidnapped from their school by Boko Haram, my heart aches, and surges with gratitude that I live in America. But with the news of each deadly mass shooting, the sense of security I feel here is falling away.

Even more disturbing, while my fear and my anger mount each time I learn that innocent lives were lost to gun violence—at church, on college campuses, at the movies, at the supermarket—I’m no longer surprised by the headlines. I remember the horror I felt in my gut when my mom called to tell me about the Newtown massacre as I waited for a flight at LaGuardia on December 14, 2012. Three years later, tweets and TV special reports announcing mass shootings are routine.

I worry for my own safety. Over the summer, when the lights went down at the movie theater where I went to see Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck, I wondered for a brief moment: “Could someone here take out a gun and start shooting?” That’s what happened at a Lafayette, Louisiana, showing of the same movie, where a gunman opened fire into the crowd, killing two women: Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33.

Far worse, I worry for my baby’s safety. More than once, when ringing the buzzer and waiting for the door to unlock at her daycare, a wonderful place filled with loving people and the wallpaper of children’s drawings, my mind has gone to a grim place: “Could the wrong sort of person slip in here somehow? Could she ever be hurt at this, or another, school?” It’s happened before, many times, in many places.

It’s tempting, and momentarily comforting, to tell yourself, It won’t happen to me. Like the jolt of panic you feel when your plane lurches with turbulence and you reason with yourself: What are the odds? But when it comes to gun violence and schoolchildren, that rationale isn’t working for me. The odds, as it turns out, are sickening.

I gathered the following statistics from the CDC, the FBI, and Everytown for Gun Safety, Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control group. (It should be noted that Everytown defines school shootings to include “accidental discharges of firearms, suicide attempts, and incidents in which no involved party was affiliated with the school.”) Unbelievably, or believably, since I began writing this piece in my head yesterday morning, and compiling these numbers, there have been two more school shootings in this country. A freshman killed one student and injured three more at Northern Arizona University; another student was fatally shot and a second person was injured at Texas Southern University. What is there left to say?

Do you get 8.7 hours of sleep every night? Spend a daily total of 30 minutes in the bathroom? Use Facebook for 40 minutes (and Tinder for 77 minutes) each day? If so, you just might be the most average person in the U.S.WIRED Videos – The Scene

Industrial Light & Magic was tasked with updating the helicarriers in the new film Captain America: The Winter Soldier. FXguide’s Mike Seymour talks to the visual effects company to find out what new details were added to the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircrafts, and how the effects team created a digital modeling environment for the epic helicarrier crash scene.

The whole country freaked out this week after learning 14-year-old student Ahmed Mohamed was arrested because his homemade clock was suspected to be a bomb. There’s plenty of reason to get upset (because it’s totally ridiculous), but Bill Maher thinks people should take a look at the big picture.

“Only 25 miles away, somebody did try to kill people,” said Maher on Friday’s “Real Time,” bringing up an incident in Garland, Texas, earlier this year where an exhibit featuring caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad was fired upon. Maher admitted Ahmed deserved an apology — because it was, in fact, just a clock — but sympathized with those who err on the side of caution.

“What if it had been a bomb?” he asked. “The lack of perspective on this is astounding.”

“Real Time with Bill Maher” airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO.

Also on HuffPost:

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Ex-L.A. Kings star Slava Voynov is taking his talents back to Mother Russia in the wake of his prosecution for domestic violence — choosing to leave before getting deported. As we previously reported … Voynov pled no contest to domestic…

Before crowning Miss America 2016 Sunday, CEO Sam Haskell formally apologized to judge and former pageant winner Vanessa Williams for the 1984 scandal in which Williams was pressured by the organization to resign after nude photos surfaced from before her reign, an apology that Williams tearfully accepted. What do you think?

From Academy Award®-nominated director Joe Berlinger, WHITEY: United States of America v. James J. Bulger is a sweeping and revelatory documentary film that follows the trial of the infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, using the courtroom action as a springboard to examine accusations of multi-faceted corruption within our nation’s law enforcement and legal systems.

[[tmz:video id=”0_5mpuxlav”]] Vanessa Williams and the Miss America Pageant just kissed and made up, more than 30 years after Williams was forced to hand over her crown. The show opened Sunday night with Miss America CEO Sam Haskell apologizing to…

A new Miss America will be crowned on Sunday, which means audiences can look forward to seeing some stunning ballgowns, fun celebrity judges and a whole host of various talents.

But before the 2016 winner takes her crown, The Huffington Post sat down with Kira Kazantsev, the current Miss America, to get a behind-the-scenes look at what life is really like as the country’s most beloved beauty queen.

Kazantsev dished on what it’s like to travel 20,000 miles every month for a year, and how she juggles so many appearances while keeping things real, fun and stylish. And yes, we did ask about a “Miss Congeniality” reference that Kazantsev totally confirmed. Scroll down to read excerpts from the conversation, which have been condensed and edited for clarity.

HuffPost: What is a typical day like for you:

Kira Kazantsev: I travel 20,000 miles a month and I’m in a different city every two days. Usually I wake up, depending on the call time, about two hours before. I do my own hair, I do my own makeup. You know, it could be event one of five that day and I have to maintain [my look]. It’s a lot — it’s not as glamorous as people think.

HP: Who provides your clothing?

KK: My clothes are provided to me by Joseph Ribkoff which is really nice. They travel very well. But other than that I’m on my own.

HP: For the Miss America pageant, do they give you a glam squad?

KK: Pretty much the girls do their own hair and makeup, but they do have people there to help you, touch you up, whatever it might be. They won’t leave you high and dry — there will be somebody to help you out!

HP: Do the girls help each other backstage at all?

KK: Yeah! Absolutely. There’s so much going on — it’s 52 people squeezed into a pretty tight space. So there’s constant [chatter, such as], “Is your curling iron on, can I use that for a second? I can’t find my hairspray, can I borrow yours?”

HP: Do you really use butt spray?

KK: We do use butt glue! It does help for piece of mind. Nobody wants to see that when you’re walking across the stage. Just cement that down and you’ll be good to go!

HP: Who makes your dresses for pageants?

KK: My mom and a seamstress made my competition wardrobe both years for Miss New York. We went to Mood, got fabric for like 40 bucks, got rhinestones on eBay, and they concocted this thing, this amazing dress that I ended up winning Miss New York in.

I’ve always prided myself on being very frugal about it and showing that you don’t have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars. I’ve never spent more than $ 500 on a dress.

HP: How do you travel with your crown?

KK: My carry-on always has my crown, because if the luggage gets lost than you’re kind of SOL.

I also always have my makeup and an outfit, so for whatever reason if I get stranded and my luggage doesn’t make it, I have the essentials — my “Miss America kit.”

HP: What’s the most surprising item people might find in your closet?

KK: I don’t have a closet! That’s the thing I’m looking forward to most [when the year is over]. Just having hangers!

AMERICA: LIVE IN CHICAGO presents an unique and intimate performance from the legendary band that defined the early ‘70s folk sound and ruled the Top-10 charts with their evocative harmonies and acoustic-styled musicianship. The memorable 20-song set includes greatest hits as well as rare live versions of "Head and Heart", "Till the Sun Comes Up Again" and "The Last Unicorn" – plus a special on-stage appearance by Christopher Cross on the song "Lonely People." Song List: Riverside, Ventura Highway, You Can Do Magic, Don’t Cross the River, Daisy Jane, The Last Unicorn, I Need You, Head And Heart, Till The Sun Comes Up Again, Tin Man, Muskrat Candlelight, The Border, Woman Tonight, Only In Your Heart, California Dreamin’, Lonely People (with Christopher Cross), Sandman, Sister Golden Hair, All My Life, A Horse With No Name

AMERICA: LIVE IN CHICAGO presents an unique and intimate performance from the legendary band that defined the early ‘70s folk sound and ruled the Top-10 charts with their evocative harmonies and acoustic-styled musicianship. The memorable 20-song set includes greatest hits as well as rare live versions of "Head and Heart", "Till the Sun Comes Up Again" and "The Last Unicorn" – plus a special on-stage appearance by Christopher Cross on the song "Lonely People." Song List: Riverside, Ventura Highway, You Can Do Magic, Don’t Cross the River, Daisy Jane, The Last Unicorn, I Need You, Head And Heart, Till The Sun Comes Up Again, Tin Man, Muskrat Candlelight, The Border, Woman Tonight, Only In Your Heart, California Dreamin’, Lonely People (with Christopher Cross), Sandman, Sister Golden Hair, All My Life, A Horse With No Name

The Miss America execs preparing for the live show on Sunday are in crisis mode over Vanessa Williams’ appearance … and it all has to do with the nude, girl-on-girl pics that caused her to get dethroned 31 years ago. Sources connected with the pageant…

(AllHipHop News) Meek Mill was caught up in more reports he took shots at another popular rapper. Comments the Philadelphia rapper made during his set at this year’s Made In America Festival were interpreted as a diss toward Future.

“You’re playing all motherf*cking Future tonight,” Meek could be heard telling his DJ. “If you don’t play some motherf*cking rap sh*t too. Play some hot sh*t too. I think Future’s on Made In America.”

The Dream Chasers leader posted a message on Instagram to clear up rumors his words were meant to be disrespectful toward Future. According to Meek, he does not have a problem with his “Jump Out The Face” collaborator or his music.

Meek wrote:

My DJ caught a Future attack on the set when he was told play a bunch of artist sh*t! Lol He prolly did it because I tell [him to] play all Future in the club! Don’t get it f*cked up we rather see the streets win b4 anything!

Meek Mill rocked the main stage (Rocky Stage) at the Made In America Festival and didn’t even mention Drake. There was no need to as the hometown hero ran through his catalog of hits and brought out Nicki Minaj for good measure.

The “Amen” rapper still raps over his songs instead of the instrumentals, the sold out crowd didn’t seem to mind as they sang along to hits like “House Party” and “Believe It.”

But the crowd cheered the loudest when Nicki Minaj strutted on the stage, eventually performing “All Eyes On You” with her boyfriend.

However, Meek’s closing song, the “Dreams and Nightmares Intro” is what really got the crowd lit.

Check out pics of Meek, and Nicki Minaj, below and on the following pages.

Giorgio Armani Corp. has promoted Garine Zerounian to the role of senior vice president of communications for North America.
Zerounian takes the reins from Rod Manley, who departed the company in July to serve as executive vice president, global communications for Calvin Klein Inc. Zerounian will report to Claudio Calò, worldwide director of communications for the company.
At Armani, she will oversee public relations, media, image events, graphic services and corporate communications for all brands of the Italian fashion house in North America.
Zerounian joined Armani’s public relations team as vice president of public relations for North America in January 2014. Prior to that, she held various roles, including vice president of global communications at Belstaff and senior p.r. jobs at Tory Burch, Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Yves Saint Laurent.

Trump’s official campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again!” Perhaps he should change it to the headline above.

The Huffington Post has made an editorial decision to put Trump articles in the Entertainment section instead of the political section. This seemed like a good idea at the time.

Admittedly he is the class clown — and the schoolyard bully. Oddly, also the teacher’s pet. But his toxic mix of egotism, cynicism and racism simply isn’t entertaining. It is, however, still a spectacle.

His now infamous tirade about Mexicans being criminals and rapists is well-known.

Recently two cowardly young thugs in Boston allegedly urinated on and used a metal pole to beat a 58-year-old sleeping Hispanic homeless man, fracturing his nose and causing other serious injuries. One of them reportedly told the police “Donald Trump was right, all of these illegals need to be deported.” (Apparently, the two assailants checked his immigration status before brutalizing him.) A news person asked Trump for his reaction, and Trump reportedly said “That would be a shame” adding this remarkable statement, “I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that.”

His supporters chanted “USA! USA! USA!” when some protesters were thrown out of a Trump event in Phoenix — as if they were cheering at Wrestlemania.

This week at a press conference in Iowa, several times Trump ordered Univision anchorman Jorge Ramos, a respected journalist and an American citizen, to “Sit down,” as if Ramos were a dog being ordered by his unkind master to “Sit.” Trump also added to “Go back to Univision.” Then Trump nodded at one of his security guards who escorted Ramos out of the room.

In the hallway, a Trump supporter further humiliated Ramos telling him “Get out of my country.” Ramos responded with restraint, class, and dignity.

The delusional Donald has often claims that he will win the “Hispanic” vote. This assertion might be just another Trump empty promise. A recent Gallop Poll shows among Hispanic voters, he has the highest disapproval rate (65 percent) of any GOP candidate.

Apparently he is looking to carry Asian vote as well. Here’s Trump mocking them and doing a racially stereotypical impersonation of “these people”:

While Trump may not carry Latinos or Asians, he will likely carry the racists’ vote. It isn’t surprising that Trump is receiving endorsements from white supremacy groups and neo-Nazis. David Duke, former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has reportedly called Trump the best of the GOP candidates.

In an interview with Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, Trump reportedly said “I don’t need his endorsement; I certainly wouldn’t want his endorsement” and added “I don’t need anyone’s endorsement.” When asked if he would repudiate the endorsement, Trump is quoted as saying “Sure, I would if that would make you feel better.”

That doesn’t make me feel any better.

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Journey into the world of Argentina's most famous musical artist in Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America. Over a career that spanned 50 years, Sosa sold millions of records, performed thousands of concerts all over the world, and left behind an incredible legacy as an artist who went beyond the borders of music to become one of the most influential – and loved – personalities of the 20th century. This intimate documentary reveals Sosa's early life and her rise to worldwide stardom, and explores the impact she had on the musical and political heritage of Latin America… and the world.

UNIQLO’S AMERICAN DREAM: Presidential candidates aren’t the only ones trying to relay more of a true-blue everyman spirit. Uniqlo founder, chairman and chief executive officer Tadashi Yanai is the latest top brass executive to pen a personal letter as an ad to customers. The black and white two-page spread in the Aug. 6 edition of last week’s New York Times was noticeably starker than the brand’s vibrant colorful campaigns in the past. Save for the red “Dear America” intro, Yanai’s words were colorless, but aimed to convey a warmth just the same. “This country is a place where, if you have something great to offer, you will be embraced. I believed that in 1984 when I opened the first Uniqlo store in Japan with the dream of one day bringing my new idea to the United States.”
Aiming to hit $ 50 billion in global sales by 2020, Yanai literally spelled out a few new initiatives including the openings of stores in Boston, Chicago and Seattle. He also explained the company’s name as an abbreviation for Unique Clothing Warehouse, and noted that LifeWear is simple apparel with a not so simple purpose: To make your life better. While not in Yanai’s words, the

CLEVELAND—Hailing the bygone era as a golden age of opportunity, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal spent his opening remarks during Thursday’s GOP debate vowing to return America to a time when he was a rising star within the Republican Party. “I want to bring America back to its best days, back when our future as a nation looked bright and I was widely considered to be the leading voice of a new generation of conservatives,” said Jindal, emphasizing that the country had strayed too far from the halcyon days that Americans enjoyed for a brief period in early 2009. “Comparing our nation today to where it was during that idyllic time when I was being touted as a potential heir to the Ronald Reagan legacy, anyone can plainly see that the most powerful country in the world has lost its way and replaced hopefulness and optimism with utter despair …

Some would say The Caitlyn Jenner Show debuted last month, when her Vanity Fair cover all but broke Twitter. Indeed Jenner has sparked a massive moment for the transgender community, but there’s still plenty of work to be done: Eighty-nine percent of people in America say they don’t know a transgender person, according to one poll. Another survey found 24 percent aren’t sure what transgender means. That’s why America needs her new E! docu-series (the elegant way to say reality show), I Am Cait, premiering tonight, more than ever.

Now that Jenner is the face of the trans community to many, the bar for the premiere episode has been set sky-high (compared with, say, an episode of Kourtney & Khloé Take Miami.) And the scrutiny will be too.

Early criticism of Jenner’s coming out has largely focused on her bombshell appearance. Elinor Burkett’s controversial New York Times op-ed chided Jenner’s “idea of a woman” as a “cleavage-boosting corset, sultry poses, thick mascara, and the prospect of regular ‘girls’ nights’ of banter about hair and makeup.” Based on the previews, I Am Cait will do little to squash the idea that Jenner came out not only as a woman, but a “sex babe,” according to one reporter cited by the Times. Lip gloss and nail polish loom large in the first glimpses at I Am Cait.

But if you consider what it must be like to be a 65-year-old woman who has never been able to freely, outwardly express herself, including her clothes, hair, and makeup, the freedom to rock a fresh mani/pedi doesn’t seem so inconsequential. As Jenner says in one preview, the show is about “getting to be who you really are.” If part of who she really is is a “sex babe,” it’s her right to—finally—be herself.

Many are also jumping to harp on her show for not reflecting the issues common to most transgender women who, unlike Jenner, don’t have easy access to physical or mental health care, much less hormone therapy or facial-feminization surgery. Jenner lives quite safely on a bluff overlooking Malibu, while statistics say trans women are at a disproportionately higher risk of murder than others. (Jenner will try to touch on these issues on I Am Cait by meeting with the parents of Kyler Prescott, a transgender teen who committed suicide this year.)

Further, Jenner’s first four children refused to appear in the series, expressing concern that using the Keeping Up with the Kardashians production team and airing I Am Cait on E! will sensationalize Jenner’s message of trans acceptance. “You go on E!’s website . . . and you look at all the shows, every one of them is a circus,” Brandon Jenner told Vanity Fair.

All that said, even if the reality show (excuse me, docu-series) stars the most #firstworld transgender woman in history, even if is a frothy E! production, it’s still an opportunity to show all of the ways that Jenner is a human woman like any other to the masses—someone who freaks out before her mom comes to visit, someone who has tense moments with her kids, someone who lies awake at night worrying about whether she’s making the right decisions. (Also, someone who laughs at herself when realizing she bought the same little black dress as her ex-wife Kris Jenner—not a universal human experience, but a really funny, endearing one.)

On E! or not, Kardashian circus or not, at times superficial or not, America needs this show now. It needs to know trans men and women and their struggles on a deeper level. Sometimes a TV show isn’t just a TV show—consider that, in 1997, it was shocking for Ellen DeGeneres’s character to say “I am gay” on her sitcom. Today, gay marriage is the law of the land. I Am Cait won’t singlehandedly overhaul ignorance and prejudice about the transgender community. But if it makes it a little harder for someone who has never met a transgender person to reduce them to an abstract idea instead of a human being, it’s a start.

Ariana Grande loves America sooooooooooo much — and she went out of her way to prove it to an arena full of people. Look, it’s entirely possible the people of Tampa forgot what country they live in … and she was…

I wanted to answer the question, what would America be like if these people actually became the President of the United States? For extra fun, I gave all of the would-be Presidents nicknames, and actually called all of them President (Fill in your favorite) because if actually reading something like President Huckabee doesn’t run a chill up your spine, I don’t know what will.

President Jeb “I swear I can’t be worse than Dubya, or can I…” Bush

President Jeb, having said that his brother’s Iraq War was correct, even with hindsight (one of the most ridiculous things said by a candidate this year, and this is a field including Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal I remind you). So, I think it’s safe to assume Bush III would lead us into Middle East War III.

President Scott “Terrorists are cowards who are afraid of freedom, but darn it, I’ll stop same-sex marriage if it’s the last thing I do, because I love freedom THAT much” Walker

I’ll admit it, that nickname was a bit longwinded. But, the first part of it, he actually said, and we can only imagine that he whispered the rest of that to himself later that night. The scariest of all things is that he is actually a legitimate contender for president. He has a lot of terrifying statements and policies, but for now, let’s just focus on the fact that he would waste a significant amount of time trying to get a Constitutional Amendment to prevent same-sex marriage. Rather than something like, oh, I don’t know, comprehensive campaign finance reform. But, that would hurt his overlords the Koch brothers.

President Ted “Guns Blazing, Texas Man” Cruz

As a firm opponent of any gun ownership checks or restrictions, a Cruz administration would likely block legislation that looked to remedy situations that contributed to school shootings and astronomical gun violence numbers that much of America deals with. Immigrants would be in a tough spot as he has frequently spoken out against the DREAM Act and any paths to citizenship for undocumented residents. Oh, and, if he stays true to statement’s he made, we could see social security dismantled. Lovely.

President Rand “Sort-of-Libertarian, Flip-Flopper” Paul

The Flip-Flopper himself, President Rand Paul. His reversal from his original budget plan proposed in 2011 that slashed spending on everything to his 2015 budget plan that gave more money to the Pentagon and our war making potential has been shocking. The good news is, I can finally tell the people that say “I don’t agree with Rand, but at least he has his principles” that they are full of it. A Rand Paul Administration would be a bizarre mix of almost Libertarian-every-person-for-themselves kind of thing and an apocalypse, because that is exactly what would happen if we suddenly ended discretionary spending, aid to foreign countries, taxes, etc.

President Marco “I love the middle class but let’s kill it!” Rubio

President Rubio would proudly deliver his inauguration speech, peppering in nuggets about how his family immigrated her, worked hard, and were able to enter the middle class. Then, the next day he would immediately start working towards killing the middle class by refusing to raise the minimum wage and allowing corporations and the mega-rich to take advantage of huge tax loopholes. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

President Rick “I really want to be, but never will be President” Santorum

It’s been a long slog for the defending Iowa caucus champion. According to the former Pennsylvania senator, people with pre-existing conditions “should pay more.” Yikes. Sounds like Obamacare, a piece of legislation that is literally saving thousands of lives would go under the knife with President Santorum. Also, President Santorum has said there would be no porn allowed in America if he had a say. You can come after our health care, and our human rights, but we will not stand for our porn to be attacked. Ever.

President Chris “Sit down, Shut up, and Listen to what I’m saying” Christie

After only taking 8 years to run NJ into the ground with the most credit downgrades in state history, peak crime years, drop in education, and other things, President Christie promises us that he will rebuild America in only 4!

President Bobby “I will castrate you” Jindal

If his previous statements are anything to go by, he would call for chemical castration of sexual predators and the end to LGBTQ rights. Also, everything would be in English under President Jindal, because we can’t have other countries thinking we are soft for tolerating ethnic minorities that speak other languages in their homes. President Jindal, an America where everyone is terrified.

President Donald “You all laughed then, but now I’m President” Trump

President Trump would spend most of his first day as President rubbing it in the face of everyone who doubted him and vaguely and aggressively saying he will make America great again. Later in the week, he would repealed Obamacare by executive action and close the border with Mexico entirely. Almost everyone loses in this surely desolate future, except the Donald himself, and SNL.

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Significant history was made on this day of July 10, 2015. After years of clamoring for its removal, the evil actions of Dylann Roof prompted South Carolina to remove its Confederate flag from the state capitol. “It’s a great day in South Carolina,” the state’s Republican Governor Nikki Haley said in an interview on NBC’s TODAY. President Obama shared her sentiment tweeting, “South Carolina taking down the confederate flag – a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future.”

Of course there were those who disagreed, because quite frankly, people–largely in the South–have thrived for generations in accepted racism. It’s worth noting that the historic take down of the rebel flag won’t instantly cure intolerance but it’s a step in the right direction by removing a symbol of hate for cowards to cloak themselves behind.

Regardless, take a look at some of the most outrageous reactions from various Confederate flag lovers. Some of these people could be your neighbor. Would they say any of this to your face?

5 Scenes of pure American Amateur hand jobs, concentrating on the art of using a hands-on approach. From producers who travel the great plains of America to find more and more innocent girls who might not do a sex scene, might not do a bj, but are willing to wrap their slippery fingers around a big hard shaft and yank it. That’s why this series is special, because you won’t see the majority of these girls anywhere else. In every edition of this series, we will explore the many techniques of hand-eye coordination that will surely stroke your interest!

This clip from Handjobs Across America 27 by XPLOR Media Group features Harmony Rose in what looks like a homemade video of her stroking a hard dick, licking the tip, making that hard cock cum for her.

Happy Birthday to a nation founded in 1776 on slavery, colonialism, imperialism and genocide!

239 years later, many of these principles still exist but in different forms, such as anti-black police brutality, the prison industrial complex and white xenophobic supremacy here and abroad masked as “spreading democracy.” This is a nation developed on stolen land by racist, sexist Europeans, the ancestors of citizens who now tell others to “go back to your own country.”

As we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and remind religious and spiritual minority communities that this is “one Nation under [a Christian] God,” remember that liberty and justice is reserved only for those who resemble the Founding Fathers. Remember that “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” as outlined in the Declaration of Independence are meant solely for the elite. Remember that the false myth of “all men are created equal” is a consistent ploy to distract the nation, marketing Equality and Assimilation to marginalized populations as more appealing than Liberation and Freedom. Remember that we’re “number one” in all the wrong ways…

Any rodent who can win the Internet like Tiny Hamster just had to be a patriot.

So it’s no surprise that our fluffy friend can host a kick-ass Fourth of July barbecue: first a little lounging in the pool, then chowing down with wee pals at a stars-and-stripes-decorated table.

Among several popular vids, the Tiny Hamster series has featured our titular critter eating tiny burritos and enjoying a teensy-weensy Thanksgiving feast. And now the pet has gone full red-white-and-blue.

What an extraordinary week in the political and spiritual life of this nation.

It was a week in which President Obama found the voice that so many of us hoped we discerned in 2008; a week in which two Justices of the Supreme Court resolved that the legitimacy of the institution and their own legacy as jurists was more important than the narrow partisan agenda that Justices Roberts and Kennedy have so often carried out; a week in which liberals could feel good about ourselves and the haters of the right were thrown seriously off balance.

Yet this is one of those inflection points in American politics that could go either way. It could energize the forces of racial justice and racial healing. It could reconstitute the Supreme Court as a body that takes the Constitution seriously. The week’s events could shame, embarrass and divide the political right.

Or the events of the week — the Court upholding the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage; the racist South giving up a cherished symbol of slavery; President Obama explicitly and eloquently embracing the pain of the black experience — could energize the haters.

Consider Obama first. His eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney was the finest expression of political and moral leadership of his presidency. Obama has spoken this candidly on race only once before as a political leader — when his candidacy was on the line in 2008, in the Reverend Jeremiah Wright affair.

In that speech, Obama managed to thread the needle of candidly explaining the experience and the rhetoric of Reverend Wright’s generation, without either condoning the things Wright had said (“God Damn America”), or quite throwing him under the bus. And in the process, Obama won praise for his skill as a leader and a truth-teller on race, and defused a potentially lethal threat to his candidacy.

For the most part, Obama has been timid about using his rhetorical gifts; timid about fighting for what he believes; reticent about engaging Congress or the nation. The exceptional moment, such as the Charleston eulogy shows what the man is capable of — but allows himself to express only rarely.

It is just possible, now in the last 18 months of his presidency, that Obama, with not much to lose, will embrace the boldness that has eluded him for most his two terms — on race, on gun control, on social justice generally, and on the red-state/blue state divisions that are far more severe now than when he gave the now-famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that established him as a national contender.

There was also one sour note in Obama’s successes of past week. His victory in the fight to pursue a Pacific trade deal was the wrong battle for the wrong goal. Countless progressives wondered where that fighting spirit was when we needed it on so many battles that he and we lost.

There is a direct connection between the racial equality that was, paradoxically, advanced by the Charleston massacre and the economic inequality that has only worsened on Obama’s watch. The more that the One Percent makes off with the lion’s share of America’s productivity, the more the white working class and the downwardly mobile middle class are inclined to scapegoat people of color and immigrants.

How much stronger a hand Obama would have to call America to be its best self on racial healing, if he had been a fighter all along for economic justice; if working class people of all races felt that they had a champion in him. Instead, the biggest economic battle of his second term was on behalf of a corporate wish list.

That said, there is now momentum on the progressive side. There is movement for the symbolism of taking down the Confederate battle flag to give way to substance. If Southern Republican leaders now recognize the pain that such symbols cause, how about the pain of the denial of the right to vote? How about the pain of denial of health coverage under Medicaid so that Republican leaders can score political points against Obama.

The president was eloquent in his eulogy on the subject of grace.

According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God… As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind. [Applause.] He has given us the chance, where we’ve been lost, to find our best selves.

Well, if we as a nation were to stop with the removal of the Confederate flag from official sites, that would be cheap grace indeed. To shift the metaphor from Christian to Jewish, one thinks of the Passover song, Dayenu, which means, “It would have been enough:” If God had led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, that would have been enough; if He had given us the Torah, it would been enough. And so on. But God’s blessings are infinite.

To flip the sentiment, if the Southern elite took down the flag — that would not be enough. And if they restored the right to vote freely, that would not be enough. And if America got serious about police brutality, that would not be enough. And if conservatives stopped trying to overturn affirmative action — that would only be the bare beginning of what we owe the descendants of slavery, segregation and continued acts of racial violence.

Which brings me to the Supreme Court. In the decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, Justice Roberts rose to the occasion with true eloquence and discernment. Justice Kennedy, author of the soaring decision on gay marriage, has displayed growth and compassion on a range of issues. Even in dissent, in the gay marriage decision Justice Roberts acknowledged what a momentous shift the acceptance of same-sex marriage was and is.

Justice Scalia was revealed, even more than before, as a petty, vindictive crank. His cheap, personal put-downs of Kennedy and Roberts in dissent can hardly serve to win them over in future decisions.

Here again, if the Court really wants to atone for past sins, Roberts and Kennedy might revisit the absurd decision throwing out key sections of the Voting Rights Act on the premise that racist denial of the right to vote was no longer a problem; and the equally bizarre decision equating money with speech. They have now had time for penitence — to see the real-world consequences of their handiwork and consider just how wrong they were, not just on the Constitution but on how politics actually operates.

Still to come will be a decision on affirmative action, where past signals have suggested that the Roberts Court is ready to overturn it. After Charleston, and the national conversation that the massacre has opened, this would not be the moment to destroy the society’s ability to very partially remediate past oppression.

All in all, a good week for everything decent in America. But only the bare beginnings of the progress we need to make. President Obama needs to keep following that inner light. The new Supreme Court majority needs to continue aiming higher than narrow partisanship. And the rest of us need to broaden the struggle for economic as well as racial justice.

While most sensible Americans were celebrating the bold actions of North Carolina activist Bree Newsome and the take down of the Confederate Flag at the South Carolina Statehouse, others decried the moment. Over the weekend, several pro-Confederate Flag rallies kicked off across the Deep South and don’t look to be letting up anytime soon.

As observed by WIS10 reporter Chad Wills, dozens of individuals decided to gather at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. with the flag of the moment in tow while singing the questionable “I Wish I Was In Dixie” song. There was even an intense conversation between a Black man and some of the flag marchers that immediately made that uncomfortable turn into racist dogma when the White individual told the man to “go back where you came from.”

More of the same took place on the capitol steps in Montgomery, Ala. and in several towns across Florida. Because of the intensity of the debate over the flag, the issue isn’t going to go away quietly in the night.

And despite sensible arguments in favor of the flag’s removal from government structures and the like, supporters are clinging to their right to fly the symbol.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Friday that bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional, concluding decades of hard-fought battles by gay rights activists to grant marriage equality to all. Here is a timeline of milestones in the gay rights movement in the U.S.:

No matter which way the U.S. Supreme Court rules on same-sex marriage later this month, data shows that support is surging ahead in every single state–and yes, that does include the historically conservative Midwest.

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The unspeakable shooting that took place at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday evening (June 16) will not soon be forgotten. Nine innocent lives were taken by a gunman who opened fire on unsuspecting churchgoers without warning. Like many Americans, this incident struck a particular nerve in Nas’ heart. While at the premiere of the upcoming hip-hop fashion film Fresh Dressed, VIBE spoke to the legendary rapper about …News, reviews, interviews and more for top artists and albums – MSN Music
ADULT ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE:Gabby Love’s top pick! Click and enjoy!

Carmen Ejogo and Susan Sarandon are the latest celebrities to add their voice to LGBT advocacy group Lambda Legal‘s campaign for marriage equality.

Ejogo, who starred as Coretta Scott King in “Selma,” said in a video for the group’s #IDo campaign that her support for LGBT rights traces its roots in her Nigerian-Scottish heritage.

“I haven’t fully [fit] into the black community, the white community, I’ve had to sort of find my space. And I think for that reason I have a lot of empathy for anyone that’s going through the same kind of desire for identity approval in the mainstream,” she said. “If we do the right thing in terms of marriage equality, there may be other nations that could follow suit. And that’s for the betterment of all of us.”

Yesterday Rachel Dolezal’s parents appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and suggested that their estranged daughter was immersed in some sort of full-bore identity crisis and in need of help. Based on what we had read about her so far, it seemed likely that they were right about Dolezal, the former head of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP who stepped down yesterday after being outed as a Caucasian woman posing as a light-skinned black woman.

Yet when Dolezal appeared this morning on the Today show—her skin heavily bronzed, her hair worn in a sort of loose Afro, her facial features almost the carbon copy of her mother’s—she came across as composed, measured, in control of her own story, and, though this feels crazy to admit, sane.

As Matt Lauer questioned her about the ways, over the years, that she has misrepresented herself, encouraging the world to make faulty assumptions about her background, she repeatedly towed the same line: I identify as black, other people are uncomfortable with that, but it’s what’s in my heart that matters and it’s the experience I’m living that’s truly important.

What struck me most about Dolezal was her unwillingness (granted, it’s sometimes infuriating) to concede even a smidge to Lauer’s worldview, even as he pushed her further and further to the brink with questions intended to provoke. Nodding, occasionally smiling, Dolezal refused to take the bait. They seemed to be talking past each other, having two completely different conversations about race in America. Each time Lauer attempted to pin her down, Dolezal pivoted, scooting out from under his questions, reframing the conflict in her own words, using a very different framework of language and identity than the one we’re accustomed to or comfortable with.

For Dolezal, words slither and slip, their meanings unfixed and mutable. Language, she seemed to say, ought to serve a higher purpose, address emotional truths rather than physical ones. Her register was half academic—some sort of post-structuralist understanding of signifiers and signs and the gulf that lies between them—and half Free to Be . . . You and Me–era political correctness: I’m just living my own truth, she seemed to suggest. Why can’t you all get onboard with that?

Why did she represent Albert Wilkerson, a black man, as her father, when her actual father is a white man? “We connected on a very intimate level as family. Albert Wilkerson is my dad. Any man can be a father,” she explained. “Not every man can be a dad.” How can she, a white woman, be the mother of a black son? “He said, ‘You’re my real mom.’ And he’s in high school, and for that to be something that is plausible, I certainly can’t be seen as white and be Izaiah’s mom.”

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It never quite tracks, but it’s also clear that Dolezal is living according to a set of rules that make perfect sense to her. “Are you an African-American woman?” Lauer asked at the beginning of the interview, getting down to brass tacks. “I identify as black,” she said with a politic smile, and the precision of that answer—“black” not “African-American”—feels very deliberate. Later, he asked her why, when she sued Howard University in 2002, she identified herself as a white woman. “The reasons for my full tuition scholarship being removed and my TA position as well were that ‘other people needed opportunities, and you probably have white relatives that can afford to help you with your tuition.’ And I thought that was an injustice.” Lauer was correct to point out the hypocrisy in this flip-flop, but Dolezal doesn’t see it as a problem; language bends, labels shift, but as long as the cause is righteous, what’s the big deal?

Refusing to engage when others try to define her is a trend for Dolezal. When did you start deceiving people? Lauer asked. “I was actually identified when I was doing human rights work in North Idaho as first transracial,” she replied. “Then when some of the opposition to some of the human rights work I was doing came forward, the next newspaper article identified me as being a biracial woman. And then, the next article, when there were actually burglaries, nooses, etc., was: This is happening to a black woman. And I never corrected that.” Why not, Lauer wondered, when you knew it wasn’t true? “Because it’s more complex than being true or false,” Dolezal replied. The point is clear: Whenever possible, our culture defaults to black or white, and the words we might sub in—biracial, or even the controversial term transracial—don’t quite do the job.

Watching this uncomfortable, disjointed conversation did not clear up for me whether Rachel Dolezal is truly sane or unhinged but well media-trained. It didn’t even really help me understand whether her choices are utterly offensive, deliberately deceitful, or weirdly enlightened. What it did make crystal clear is the fact that the vocabulary we currently possess to discuss race is bizarrely inadequate. In an America in which all other identities have become fluid, in which the spectrum of sexuality is a given and class mobility, at least in theory, is an essential tenet of our national identity, race remains the one thing we continue to see as fixed, binary.

It’s peach crayon versus brown crayon, as Dolezal reminds us, referring to drawing a self-portrait at age five. It’s black versus white, a comically elementary set of terms to throw at what is clearly a very tangled knot.

(RNS) This week, North Carolina’s legislature overrode its Republican governor’s veto to allow magistrates and clerks to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

This unprecedented move — never before have state employees been allowed to simply stop doing their jobs — comes at a time of profound debate regarding same-sex marriage. It is exactly the wrong move.

To be sure, same-sex marriage is a contentious moral and political issue. National support for marriage equality is now at 63 percent, but that means 37 percent still have doubts. And while some of that 37 percent may be bigoted or homophobic, a significant portion has sincere religious objections. As same-sex marriage may soon be the law of the land, why not accommodate those sincere believers wherever possible, so that they can enjoy their right to religious liberty?

There are two important reasons why.

First no constitutional right exists in a vacuum. Rather, rights exist in balance with other rights and other interests.

Sometimes, those interests may be easy to set aside. In the 1990s, when a group of Native Americans were held to have violated drug laws because they used peyote in a sacramental ritual, Congress nearly unanimously passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to protect them. In this case, the competing interest was trivial (anti-drug laws were not meant to target religious ritual), no one else was harmed, and Congress took action.

Other times, however, the competing interests are profound. In the 1960s, many business owners sincerely believed that whites and blacks should not marry one another, mix with one another, or even sit with one another in restaurants. Like today, some of these people were simply racist. Some, however, had sincere religious objections, and plenty of unambiguous Scripture to back them up.

What should courts and legislatures have done? Should they have accommodated those religious objections, passing civil rights laws but exempting those with religious beliefs?

Imagine what that would have looked like: separate lunch counters, segregated schools, and all-white neighborhoods. The exemption would have eaten the civil right itself. “Separate but equal” would have endured.

Flash forward to today. Citing religious freedom, laws have been passed that allow private businesses to turn away gay customers, state-licensed adoption agencies to turn away gay families, and now state employees to turn away gay people who seek to legally marry. Is this real equality? Or is it something less than equality, in which case the exemption has overwhelmed the civil right itself?

Some would say that LGBT people can simply find another magistrate to marry them; indeed, the North Carolina law requires that one be made available. This does mitigate some of the harm.

But there might be other restaurants down the street, too. Does that make it okay for one to say, “no blacks allowed”?

Of course not. Even when alternative remedies are available, the public refusal violates the right to equal protection under the laws, as interpreted by the Civil Rights Act.

And while African-Americans and LGBT people have very different histories and cultural positions, the offense caused by “no gays allowed” is basically the same.

But what about that magistrate, forced to perform a marriage he or she finds religiously forbidden? Doesn’t she have rights too?

Yes — and this brings me to my second main point. In a democracy, civil marriage is not a religious issue.

To be clear, no one is saying religious institutions should have to accept, host, or bless gay unions, or any other marriage they may find objectionable.

For example, the synagogue I grew up in refused to perform interfaith weddings. Does that violate the civil rights of the couple wishing to be married? Well, it does affect them, but the couple’s right to get married wherever they want is trumped by the synagogue members’ rights to freely exercise their religion.

What goes on among religious people, and in religious spaces, is constitutionally as well as theologically sacred.

But the courthouse is not a religious space, and the magistrate is not acting in a religious capacity. She is doing her job, which she took an oath to do.

In fact, by obeying the law, she is following Jesus’ commandment to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and render unto God what is God’s.”

Same-sex marriage is only one of many marriages that some clerks may find objectionable. Suppose two divorced people marry one another. Some Catholics may believe that to be against God’s law. But a Catholic magistrate is not a Catholic priest. He’s not performing the sacrament of marriage. He’s acting under secular, state law.

Or suppose a 17-year-old girl marries a 60-year-old man. Some may find that religiously or morally problematic, but the state of North Carolina allows it.

Or suppose a black man marries a white woman — illegal in North Carolina until 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled such laws unconstitutional. Was that ruling incorrect? Should marriage clerks with sincere religious objections have been able to opt out?

This is why North Carolina’s governor, Pat McCrory, vetoed the bill. Not because he endorses same-sex marriage — he doesn’t. But because confusing civil and religious marriage undermines the rule of law.

Here’s what a believing magistrate in North Carolina should do when that gay couple approaches her window. She should understand that she is not wedding two people before God, but validating their legal marriage under the laws of the United States. She should feel blessed to be able to do so. And she should thank God that in our country, the two are not confused with one another.

(Jay Michaelson is a columnist for The Daily Beast and author of the 2013 report “Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights.”)

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The Book Expo Of America (BEA) and BookCon 2.0 just ended this weekend in New York City. If you love books, you should have been there. Actually, if you love movies or TV shows, you should have been there too, since lots of your favorite movies and TV shows are based on books or spin-off books. And if you love sports or food or astronomy or gardening or mysteries or history or just about anything else, you should have been there. An app? Pshaw! They’ve got a much better book about that.

The BEA is where the publishing industry talks to itself. Editors and writers and publicists and librarians and bookstore owners and marketers all get together and take casual meetings and attend panels and go cheer on authors so they can jazz each other up about the many books just out or coming up this summer and fall.

BookCon is where the publishing industry talks to the world, offering more panels (but FUN ones) and author signings and movie screenings. It’s like ComicCon’s smarter kid brother. And a big star at both of them is John Green, the best-selling author of The Fault In Our Stars and Looking For Alaska and Paper Towns, which has been turned into a movie that opens July 24th. Green chatted with BookFilter and seemed positively abashed about having no new book on the horizon but perked up considerably when talking about the movie and public education and his passion for soccer. (For those not following the FIFA scandal, “Blatter” is the name of the head of that troubled org.) Check it out:

And here’s the trailer to the movie.

If you haven’t read Paper Towns, don’t fear — it’s virtually cancer free and filled with witty dialogue teens only wish they could spout out on command. Green’s a rock star because he does naturally what so many authors are attempting: using social media to stay in touch with their fans. It works for Green because he’s not doing it to promote his books; he’s doing it because he loves it. Check out his website, and Crash Course, terrific online videos about history and math and science and literature and more, all designed to be great resources for students, teachers and anyone who wants to learn something fun. (Anyone, that is, except the Mongols.) John and his brother Hank created it and have now partnered with PBS and hope to make educational resources available for free to everyone around the world.

As you can see, Green’s multi-media career is going full bore. But BookCon is just getting started. The big Comic-Cons reach more than 100,000 people. This year was the second edition of BookCon and they’re hoping to hit 15,000 to 20,000. Yet with care and smart moves, the sky is the limit. Book tours have become increasingly difficult for publishers to fund. So instead of sending out each other individually, why not bring the fans to them? I can easily imagine BookCons on the east and west coast, north and south some four times a year: every season has great books, every season a big movie or TV show linked to a book is getting launched or enjoying a new season, and every big name author like Judy Blume and Stephen King and David Sedaris and Diana Gabaldon and John Grisham and yes John Green can draw passionate fans. With them as anchors, a lot of newer authors these name brands respect and support can reach tons of fans all at once. Brien McDonald, the show manager of BookCon 2015 for ReedPOP talked with me about what was happening at this year’s event and their plans for the future. (The sound is iffy, but that’s because unlike John Green, I’m pretty new to all this video-ing stuff.)

For me, the BEA was pretty sleepy this year. In years past, people would trundle around luggage on wheels so they could pile up on galleys, the advance copies of big releases. Now with so many books available as e-galleys online, that intense drive to “get” a certain book right away so you could read it and judge for yourself just wasn’t there. The aisles seemed less crowded — especially in the vast area where a huge contingent from China laid out elaborate displays of books published in China and Chinese books they hoped to promote in the US. It was impressive, but with faux grass and small shrubbery in the middle of mini-plazas they’d created, the displays looked like quiet public gardens for private contemplation whenever you stumbled into that area of the show floor.

BookCon was more exciting. The fans weren’t nearly as overwhelming as the aisle-clogging crowd at Comic-Con in the fall But they were just as passionate. Starry celebs included Mindy Kaling, BJ Novak, Jason Segal, Judy Blume and R.L. Stine of Goosebumps fame. But just as many fans were excited to see vloggers turned authors like Connor Franta or attending panels like the Rotten Tomatoes event where the audience squared off with critics like Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News and voted on the best and worst movies based on books. (I know Neumaier and happily booed when he said The Golden Compass was good. And kudos to the young woman who amusingly and correctly said the worst book into film was The Cat In The Hat.)

The event still needs a lot of TLC to grow. I wish the floors were filled with indie sellers just like Comic-Con. Specialized booksellers and self-published authors and vendors of pulp fiction collectables and contests and give-aways (a lot more give-aways) would help give fans a lot more to do than roam the aisles of booths publishers mounted for BEA and then mostly abandoned once BookCon began. BookCon is such a no-brainer — people spend some $ 16 billion a year on books (not counting textbooks and the like or that number would be much bigger). Every season brings great books. And every season deserves an event with a lot of hoopla to let people know those books are coming out. Next year BookCon takes place in Chicago. Hopefully some day soon it’ll come to a city near you.

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder and CEO of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. Head to BookFilter if you want to find more great picks in every category. You’ll discover smart picks by our crackerjack staff, not crowd-sourced reviews saying — yet again — hey, you should read “The Girl On A Train!” (I mean, you should, but you knew that already, didn’t you?) You’ll know what just came out in stores, get great ideas for what to read next or find a smart and affordable gift in every category. If you’re a super-fan of cookbooks or history or mystery or you name it, come to BookFilter and you can browse through lists of every release in every category and do your own filtering!

Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free galleys and final copies of books in the hope that he’ll review or write a story on them. He receives far more copies of books than he could ever cover.

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America hate-watched KimKardashian West’s first pregnancy two years ago like some do episodes of her reality show. Speculating about her weight gain was bloodsport: “Kim’s 200-lb. Nightmare: I Can’t Stop Eating!” one tabloid cover blared. “These stretch marks are ruining my body!” exclaimed another. (It seemed her pregnancy inspired all the exclamation points.) One particularly cruel meme likened her to Shamu, juxtaposing a photo of her in a black and white dress next to the killer whale and asking: “Who wore it best?”

A better question would have been: Could the public treat her any worse?

Some would argue that Kardashian started it—she puts her bombshell body out there for the world to ogle, from the sex tape to the well-oiled derriere on the cover of Paper. Yes, she rose to power that way—but not without our support. People tend to act like Kim Kardashian is something that just happened to them, rather than something they made happen. Fans bought her clothing lines and watched her show and made her a household name reportedly worth around $ 85 million. But when her sex-symbol body turned into a pregnant woman’s body, we turned on her.

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After all, the public likes its famous pregnant ladies Kate Middletonian—superhuman, skinny, with bumps barely detectable beneath Jenny Packham dresses. The reality is far less pretty—weight gain, bloating, cankles, a bit of pregnancy mask, and yes, ice cream binges!!! It’s fitting that Kim, a reality star, gave us a glimpse at that reality, what it really looks like to carry a child on a naturally curvy five foot three inch frame. Except that when she did, everyone pointed and stared as if she really were Shamu at SeaWorld. (Not that pregnant women can win either way: Pregnant fitness model Sarah Stage was recently critiqued for being too toned.) It’s a phenomenon even civilian pregnant women know too well: Your belly seems to make you public property, fair game for the touching, questioning, and critiquing. If you’re already a public figure, all bets are off—but they shouldn’t be.

Fat-shaming Kardashian during pregnancy, and the likes of Jessica Simpson before her, shouldn’t be a national pastime, but a national embarrassment. Degrading their famous bodies during pregnancy sets a sad standard for all pregnant women—that it’s okay to mock and judge and objectify them at a time in their life when they can be incredibly vulnerable, both emotionally and physically. It suggests that pregnant women should be obsessed with their appearance and their weight, rather than their health and wellbeing. Only women who would want their own pregnancy food diaries (or those of their sisters or friends) made public, or their third-trimester weight printed in neon bubble letters on a magazine cover, should indulge that behavior against Kim Kardashian during her second pregnancy.

Four months after giving birth in 2013, Kardashian made one of her first post–North West appearances on The Tonight Show, telling Jay Leno of the criticism of her pregnancy weight, “It really hurt my soul.” It should hurt our collective conscience, too. We should know better this time—and there’s a good chance we might. In the two years since her last pregnancy, “we started taking Kim Kardashian seriously,” as art critic Jerry Saltz recently discussed at Vulture, noting that whether you love or hate-watch her, she’s turning selfies into an art form with her new book, Selfish. This time around, we should take her pregnancy seriously, too.

Look back at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s behind-the-scenes video (with a cameo by North!) from their April 2014 cover shoot:

Mike Posner is a singer, songwriter, and producer that has worked with Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, Pharrell Williams, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa, Nelly, TI, Snoop Dogg and others. He wrote this poignant piece for his blog.

Since the age of eight, most of my best friends have been black males. Making hip-hop music often landed me in Detroit ghettos because that’s where the other rappers lived. I was usually the only white person rapping in these cyphers. After graduated from high school I interned at a hip-hop radio station in Detroit where I was the only white intern. It was there I met Big Sean and became a part of his crew, Finally Famous, in which I am the only white member. Basically what I’m saying is, I’ve had extremely close friendships with many black males most of my life. From all of these friendships, this is what I’ve learned:

I have no idea what it’s like to be black in America.

One of my best friends is Jay John Henry. He lives in Detroit and he visits Los Angeles roughly once per year. Because he’s my friend for life and I love him, I always offer my guest room to him and let him drive one of my cars (yes, I have two cars…I’m ignorant, it’s your fault for buying my music so much :). This way he doesn’t have to spend a fortune on Ubers. I live in a nice neighborhood in LA and I drive a nice car. Last year I remember joking around with him and saying, “Don’t get pulled over in that thing, the cops aren’t going to like a young black man driving that car.” This year when I handed the car key to him I realized that the joke was not funny. I said to him, “You could actually die if you got pulled over in this car, huh?” Last year’s humor had been replaced by this year’s dark realities of Ferguson and Baltimore. Jay John answered me as if he expected me to know better. He looked me directly in the eyes and answered in a dead pan tone,

“Yes.”

He’d assumed that all my years of being around black people had taught me what it was like to be a black man in America. He assumed I had more empathy that I did. So if Mike Posner, the kid who tried his best to be black as a teenager, who spent weekends in high school free-styling in Detroit’s ghettos, who had been a star student of Mark Anthony Neal’s at Duke University, has no idea what it was like to be black, then what about the white kids in Iowa who have literally never met a black man? Most of the people at my shows are white. So I assume that most of the people reading this are white. Again, what I’m writing to tell you is what my years of being friends with black males has taught me:

We have no idea what it’s like to be black in America.

Another one of my best friends in the world is Ray Caesar. Ray and I went to college together and Duke University; he literally lived next door to me in the dormitory Junior year. When I was recording my first mixtape, he was my biggest supporter. He helped me pass out mixtapes and his facebook page basically became a full time advertisement for my music. He’s one of those friends that if you hadn’t spoken to in 15 years and you called him, he would be there for you. At Duke University, and now at dental school in Texas, Ray had the opposite experience that I did growing up. He was usually the only black person in his classes and at parties. He recently wrote a beautiful email to me and a few of our other friends from Duke. Several of our white friends expressed that they thought the riots in Baltimore were “stupid” and not accomplishing anything. “Burning their own neighborhoods isn’t going to solve anything,” they wrote. This was Ray’s response:

I cannot express to you what it feels like waking up everyday

knowing that because of what you look like, many (and I’d venture to say the majority) have been conditioned by society to distrust your every action. Take a second and truly think how damaging that is to someone’s psyche. Put that to one side, and then imagine that the single authority given the power, training, and weapons to enforce our nation’s laws has these same views on your race – not everyone, but most, considering racial profiling is a legal police tactic. Again, mull that over and put it to one side. Now, realize that there is a decades long laundry list full of mistreatment, excessive force, brutality, and murder by one race of policemen against one race of “suspects” for lack of a better world… preceded only by the government sanctioned systematic physical and psychological imprisonment of your race (slavery). I had a brief conversation with Perez this week where I made a poor attempt at explaining what it’s like to be black in America… and sadly, the world. Below is part of our conversation: “I’ll be honest with you bro, I’m terrified. At least before, people didn’t believe it was true and it was swept under the rug – in 2015 we’ve got evidence, videos, photos, witnesses… and there is still 0 accountability. I look EXACTLY like every single one of these victims. I was blessed to have grown up in a much different neighborhood, but cops don’t know my address, they don’t know where I went to school, or my career path. Every single black male in my fam has had situations with police. I could be any one of these stories. It’s a helpless and nauseating feeling… ”

The message I’d like to convey is “What the fuck else do you want them to do?” Witness corroboration has not put a policeman behind bars, complaining to HR at police headquarters is met with criticism and most cases are literally ignored since “cops take care of cops”. Wait your turn in court they said… peaceful protests only, violence isn’t the solution. Then a case comes out where there is PHOTO and VIDEO EVIDENCE of the murder of another black male by a white policeman, and absolutely nothing fucking happens. My question to you is: considering the lack of education, financial resources, and organization – WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT THEM TO DO?!

I had a very serious conversation with my mother where I told her I was considering dropping out of dental school to try to make a difference with race relations in this country. I don’t see the value of pursuing any career path when in my heart I feel that my talents could be used to advance our society’s dialogue about issues like these. I’m being serious, I care that much about this shit. With every new case, I feel more and more like I’ve made the incorrect decision in completing a degree that only helps myself and my family.

This is obviously an issue that needs to be discussed in person instead of over email, but my central point to you is that we, the black community, have exhausted every single other option to try to rectify this issue. I obviously don’t find any value in tearing your community apart, burning your neighbors cars, or smashing the windows of your favorite corner store, but fuck – violence has recently been the ONLY way to bring attention to these stories… without the riots, I guarantee a minuscule percentage of our population would ever know about Ferguson, or Baltimore, or ___, or ___, etc… Maybe in this twisted world of ours, violence is the only option that forces the world to pay attention. We have literally tried everything else. Don’t blame these kids for standing up for a cause, turn your attention to the system which has pushed them to this juncture.

I read an excerpt from a speech that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered on March 14, 1968, in Michigan where he said,

And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

I find it remarkable how well those worlds still apply to our society. The first sentence, “a riot is the language of the unheard” inspired the following song: Mike Posner – Voice of the Unheard.

Three weeks after delivering that speech, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. Thirty-seven years after that, I’m writing these words on Delta flight 1876 from Los Angeles to Detroit. It’s easy for me to pretend like everything’s cool in my home in Hollywood, but the truth is, it’s scary how little has changed. Maybe the first step is for me to stop pretending there is equality when there is not, and admit:

When you think about it, the dynamic between a president and their country is a pretty serious four to eight-year relationship. And America can’t afford to hook up with just anyone. It doesn’t work out well. Sure, Tinder is a visual game, but once somebody swipes right on you, that’s when the test really begins.

So let’s combine the two grossest things in modern America, Tinder and politics, and imagine exactly what kind of conversation the presidential candidates would have with the nation once they got to the swipe right stage of the process.

When Rand Paul announced his candidacy for president this week, he declared his plans to help America “take our country back.” Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule has an important question for the 2016 contender: “What the fuck do you mean?”

In true Queens fashion, Bronsolino finds inspiration in the classic 1988 film Coming To America, playing the roles of Prince Akeem, Randy Watson, and even the Jewish barbershop customer. Meanwhile, his right hand man Big Body Bes is Semmi.

Chance is essentially a young Cuba Gooding, Jr., long before he was backflipping.